Virtual Reality Version of Madden to be Released by EA Tiburon

Uprising of Virtual Reality Business

Local business leaders and game developers have predicted how successful and exciting this year might be for virtual reality and while some major game studios may be quiet as to when they will make the jump to the immersive headsets, it is possible that it might be soon judging by their body languages and all.

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In the fourth quarter report released by Game studio Electronic Arts on May 10, it revealed that its net revenue was $4.3 billion for its 2016 fiscal year — a decrease from $4.5 billion in 2015. But an update came with the report; about popular sports titles which are developed by Central Florida’s largest game studio with 750 employees, EA Tiburon, Madden NFL and NBA Live.

CEO of Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson said in his prepared comments for the quarterly report that EA Sports titles for this year — Madden NFL 17, NHL 17 and FIFA 17 — will arrive in the second quarter of the year, and that “each is taking a major leap forward in personalization, immersion and competition. We are also working on a new and engaging way to bring players into our NBA Live franchise on consoles.”

Now, you might choose not to take all that with much seriousness but considering the buzz Virtual reality has generated this year from the launch of the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive to Samsung’s VR headset and Sony’s Playstation VR set, it would only make some sense why EA would also venture into experimenting with the technology. Also, EA’s popular Star Wars Battlefront game has already been ascertained as a suitable title for the Playstation VR. Why wouldn’t EA take a step further to develop its popular sport titles for the headset as well?

Virtual Reality on Electronic Arts Sports Exposure

Another reason is that, adding EA Sports titles to a virtual reality headset would give the game even more exposure, as it’s already one of EA’s top-selling products. Almost 54 million unique players engaged in EA Sports console games during fiscal-year 2016 — a 65 percent increase from last year, according to executive details from the quarterly report.

And while EA Tiburon seems to have already started playing around with the technology, according to what Daryl Holt, vice president and group COO of Electronic Arts, told the Orlando Business Journal in a previous report. “It is something we’ve always been looking at. We have the technology here, and we experiment with it in a lot of different ways — not just game making, but also making a game in the sense of going into a Madden stadium and looking at a player or looking around a player huddle if you are an art director or character artist to perfect something,” he said. “It’s technology we will experiment with, but we don’t want to rush a project.”

So you can imagine being your favorite quarterback on the field, running around and looking for an opportunity to pass the ball for a touchdown. That kind of thing might just be lurking around and waiting to happen sooner than you think. EA plans to reveal Madden NFL 17 on May 12 on SportsCenter at 6 p.m.

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